Quick Review: The Secrets to Happiness – Lucy Diamond

I’ve become very fussy, maybe too fussy, with books recently. I’ve found it very hard to find a book that I can’t put down and love from the very first page. Which is why I was over the moon when I came across this book. If you are looking for a fairly lighthearted feel good read, then this is your book.

Blurb:

The best things in life . . . can be just around the corner

Rachel and Becca aren’t real sisters, or so they say. They are stepsisters, living far apart, with little in common. Rachel is the successful one: happily married with three children and a big house, plus an impressive career. Artistic Becca, meanwhile, lurches from one dead-end job to another, shares a titchy flat, and has given up on love.

The two of them have lost touch, but when Rachel doesn’t come home one night, Becca is called in to help. Once there, she quickly realizes that her stepsister’s life is not so perfect after all: Rachel’s handsome husbandhas moved out, her children are rebelling, and her glamorous career has taken a nosedive. Worst of all, nobody seems to have a clue where she might be.

As Becca begins to untangle Rachel’s secrets, she is forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about her own life, and the future seems uncertain.

But sometimes happiness can be found in the most unexpected places…

My thoughts

This book puts happiness into perspective, and shows you how happiness is different to everyone. I came across a quote in the book that I instantly fell in love with:

“Everyone had their secret shortcuts to happiness, she had to come to realize. For her, it was making something, using her hands, being creative. For her sister, it was exercise and the big outdoors. For Rita, it was clearly gardening that worked the magic: getting stuck into a vegetable plot or flower bed with a trowel, the sun on her face, tending her beloved plants.”

I think this one quote just completely sums the whole book. About creating your own happiness and realizing that your happy will be different to someone elses happy.

The characters were just fabulous and coined together just perfectly. Becca was my favourite, because she’s raw and genuine. The story line was life affirming, centered on family life and the trials and tribulations of everyday life. I personally thought that the brilliance of the book lies within the plot’s simplicity.

This book had me laughing, crying and grinning from ear to ear.

And I absolutely loved the recipes at the end of the book for the food and drink featured in the story, it added such a lovely personal touch to the overall feel of the book.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to absolutely anyone – especially if you’re trying to get out of a reading slump, this will make you love reading again.